Interview with Alex Sebastian

Musician and video artist Alex Sebastian  leaned on the Wizard Of Oz character in his production—a role of movement for the songwriter accompanied by his original music focused mainly on rock. Let's talk about this project.
Alan – Hi Alex. Could you introduce yourself to our readers? So who are you? And do they know you in the Czech Republic or Slovakia? Besides me, I know you through Klaus.
Alex – Hi Alan and thanks for having me. I would doubt that someone already knows me in the Czech Republic or Slovakia other than by accident (laughs). I am a self producing music artist based in Munich, Germany, with a broad range of interests and a broad range of taste in music. I come from a world of the 80s pop, where I was raised and learned to love music. In the meantime I’m more into prog rock or fusion, when I listen to music myself. And that’s what has influenced my latest work, as you can hear.

Alan - On the music for Wizard Of Oz. How long did you work on it? And who participated in this work?
Alex – This has been a long term project of mine reaching back to – let me think – roughly around 2015/2016. I’ve been starting to work on it, then it lay in a drawer for quite some time and I really started producing it around 2020. The overarching theme was: Perceived truths. So the idea was to do one and the same track with different musicians working under the same template without knowing from each other. Then form different versions based on “the same facts”. People who contributed were: The Pineapple Thief mastermind Bruce Soord. Female German star drummer Anika Nilles. Marco Minnemann, Tony Levin, Jerry Marotta … probably no need to say who they are. Maroccan percussionist Rhani Krija. My long term left and right hand guy on the guitar Harry Lange. Hurdy gurdy virtuoso Michalina Malisz from Warsaw and the Scottish bagpiper and whistler Ross Ainslie.

Alan – Do you know Ralf Kemper.? You met him, what impressed you about him?
Alex – I met Ralf for the first time earlier this year in Cologne when recording Rhani. Really great guy. He showed me his documentary “I go back home”. A movie about his venture producing the legendary Jazz singer Jimmy Scott. He just went all in, not knowing what would become of it. I was quite amazed about the whole story of his journey. Very touching. Some elements of it reminded me about myself. Maybe he wanted me to see it because he saw some parallels between the two of us. At least I saw some when I watched the movie. Sad that this has not found a distributor yet. Everyone interested in music should be able to see it. 

Alan - Let's go to the beginning. Why Wizard Of Oz and not something else?
Alex – I was working on the demo version of this song. To me the writing process nine of ten times is: Music first, lyrics second. So I had a pretty advanced version and took it with me for my morning run to better understand where it worked and where it needed tweaking. And while running the phrase “Wizard of Oz is … coming for you” just came to mind along with one of the sections. So I kept that thought to explore later what it meant. I then realized that my brain obviously was digesting an incident of a guy who offered me friendship on Facebook out of the blue and later turned out to be a racist. You could really observe his transformation: First reposting inflammatory stuff. Then collecting Aye-sayers as commentators. Then eliminating people from his friends list who didn’t share his opinion. That was the first time when I realized how social media could be misused by people with an overwhelming number of followers. So here it was, the dystopic idea of: What would happen, if a charlatan manipulates a large enough crowd with his crude messaging?

Alan – In terms of music, you mainly relied on art rock work. Where did you get your inspiration from? At King Crimson?
Alex – I’ve been listening to a lot of art rock / progressive rock over the years. King Crimson being one of the bands. But also Porcupine Tree or The Pineapple Thief. And going back in time of course the early Genesys. Funny enough that song originated from me sitting down at the piano and just baning that 5/8 piano motive one day thinking of the early Coldplay. And then I just let it unfold itself. Resolving into a 6/8. Experimenting in 11 to make it more exciting. Getting it to the demo stage actually came together pretty quickly once I started it.

Alan – You didn't conceive your Wizard Of Oz in the form of a classic story, but you have your hidden message in it. Is this a metaphor - a crisis of self-judgment?
Alex - Well, as I illuded above: I really just used the main character as a metaphore for the message of the song. The Wizard of Oz was an ambiguous figure. People thought he had great powers and infinite wisdom, which in reality he didn’t. He was just a charlatan. And while he the original had a good core at heart, my version of him doesn’t. What we’re seeing around the western world for quite some time now are lots of people without knowledge speaking out loud, stirring up people with fake news. And we see a lot of people that too easily believe shit. Especially when the world around them confronts them with something scary or uncomfortable. Then the easy way out is to ignore real facts and instead paint the world in colours that aren’t there. In other words: If you search long enough on the internet for proof that something you think is true is actually true, you will find people who just think alike. And then you’ll get victim of a confirmation bias. And populists around the globe are making use of this mechanism. A worrying trend, if you ask me. So no, it’s no accident that Wizard of Oz is actually being released on Nov 5, 2024. The day of the US election. Saying Trump would be my Wizard of Oz would be missing the point, though. He’s probably one of the more prominent role models.

Alan - How are you planning the show? Theater + music. Do you have actors and musicians, or do you play just music?
Alex – It’s actually not planned as a show. I’m not really a stage play person, but much more a video artist. So I wrote my own short of an astro physicist who’s suddenly confronted with two charlatans speading their fake news via a brand new technology. And somehow she has to defend the truth. We had four days of shooting to get this narrative story in the can (No spoilers: you’ll see why this play of words is actually funny later.) and as we are having this interview it’s still in post production. I rather call it a short than a music video because it’s not your usual music video, but rather a piece that tells a story along the music.

Alan – Where will you go with this project? Or is it just a temporary appearance?
Alex – We’re going to release the single in Dolby Atmos at Nov 5 along with the short, which will stream on my youtube channel @alexsebastianmuc . The final EP with all the different versions done by myself with the different musicians including instrumental versions will be available for streaming Nov 15 on all streaming platforms.

Alan – What has it brought you so far? Achievements? Enthusiasm etc...
Alex – Everything I produce I’m doing because of an inner urge to do it, striving for something that’s worth listening and watching. And when I think: It’s good to an extent that I will like it even ten years from now, I share it with the world. Everything else is added benefit. So I’m hoping for many people to watch and hopefully enjoy it. It was great to see a lot of recognition for my last project “Lost at Sea” from Independent Film Festivals all over the world, though. 

Alan – Good luck with your work, maybe we will be able to see this production in the Czech Republic or Slovakia. Thanks for the interview.
Alex – Thanks for having me!
https://alexsebastian.de
https://www.facebook.com/alexsebastianmuc